News Update

Voters in Little Rock, Ark., recently approved a 25 percent
property-tax hike that will fund a variety of initiatives, including a
new school-desegregation plan.

The measure passed overwhelmingly the day after the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that federal judges may order school districts to raise
taxes if needed to pay for a court-ordered desegregation remedy.

U.S. District Judge Henry Woods, who oversees desegregation in
Little Rock and its suburbs, had indicated in a recent opinion that he
would consider such a move if voters rejected the tax hike.

The vote should also help ease the district's financial woes, which
put it on the brink of closing earlier this year. Under state law, a
large portion of the new revenue must be used to raise employees'
salaries. (See Education Week, Jan. 24, 1990.)

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